Can Your Netbook Serve Up Playable Performance?

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Sure, that little netbook you bought might offer admirable battery life, and it might be the perfect size for your carry-on luggage. But what if you want to play a game? Is there anything that such entry-level hardware can handle smoothly at the full 1280x720 resolution typical of many netbook form factors?

We were curious ourselves, so we tried out a number of our favorite games known for their low system requirements, both old and new, on an Acer Aspire One 522 with AMD’s C-50 APU running at 1 GHz, armed with 2 GB of RAM, and equipped with a 250 GB hard disk. You might be surprised by the performance this machine can deliver at 720p. You might also be surprised how many games it can’t handle, and we'll cover all of those titles on the last page of this piece. Of course, because netbooks are too small to include built-in optical drives, external storage is necessary for many of these games.

Your netbook might not be as powerful as ours when it comes to gaming. But if it sports a C-50-or-better APU and at least 2 GB of memory, you should see similar results. Stronger APUs like the E-350 should perform even better, while Intel Atoms with integrated video will perform poorly in comparison. This list is also useful for folks with older desktop hardware.

World Of Warcraft

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Let’s begin with one of the most played PC games in the world. Set to the lowest details settings at 1280x720, World of Warcraft runs surprisingly smoothly on the netbook. Usually, the frame rate is 30 FPS or higher, and although it sometimes dips into the 20s as we run around Azeroth, this is a relatively rare occurrence that doesn't hurt the game experience. This is certainly a title we're able to enjoy on our tiny platform.

Lord Of The Rings Online

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We follow up World of Warcraft with another MMO, Lord Of The Rings Online. This well-reviewed game runs exceptionally on a low-performance platform, and we are able to increase the detail preset to Medium and maintain a frame rate above 25 FPS. At these settings, the game looks fantastic, especially considering the limitations of our hardware platform. We're thinking that this title is sure to enjoy a surge in players with the release of The Hobbit film at the end of the year, especially considering its free-to-play model.

Dungeons And Dragons Online

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The final MMO on our list, DDO leverages the same basic engine used for Lord Of The Rings Online, so it’s no surprise that this game is also able to run at 720p on our netbook at the lowest graphics settings. Frame rates stay between 25 and 30 FPS, and the title is easy to enjoy. Old-school D&D players will feel right at home with the combat system, and Turbine’s free-to-play model means there’s no investment for interested parties looking to try it out.

Star Wars: Empire At War

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With MMOs out of the way, let’s move on to the only real-time strategy game on our list. Star Wars: Empire at War might not be brand new, but it’s one of the few LucasArts strategy titles that really shines, and is just as enjoyable today as when it was released. With both space and ground combat wrapped in a galactic domination meta-game, this title really has a lot to offer. Plus, our hardware has no trouble maintaining 25 FPS at 1280x720 with low detail settings. Surprisingly, the graphics look pretty good, too.

Torchlight

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Let’s move on to RPGs. With Diablo II unable to run at 720p, and Diablo III too demanding for our netbook, we have to look to Torchlight for an RPG clickfest fix in HD. This game is as close to Diablo as you can get without actually playing Blizzard's title. It even has a netbook option to drop detail and keep the frame rates acceptable. At low settings, this game manages to run at more than 20 FPS on our platform. That's not ideal for a twitch shooter, but reasonable enough for an RPG with an isometric view.

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

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Our second (and last) RPG on the list, Oblivion shocked us by running smoothly at low detail settings, with an average frame rate hovering around 30 FPS, despite an increased terrain distance setting. Sure, this one sometimes dips into the 20 FPS range, but it's never really choppy or distracting. And frankly, Oblivion looks great at 720p. If you haven’t played this one, it’s easily one of the best open-world RPGs ever made.

Aliens Versus Predator (Classic 2000)

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No, I’m not talking about the Aliens vs. Predator released back in 2010. Rather, I’m talking about Aliens versus Predator, Rebellion’s original foray into the franchise, released back in 1999. Yes, the graphics are dated, but this title offers fantastic survival-horror game play, great level design, and the ability to play as a Colonial Marine, an Alien, or a ridiculously overpowered Predator. The best part is that it runs in excess of 60 FPS on the netbook at 720p. If you have the original, you’ll need to Google the Vista/Windows 7 patch, or you can buy it on Steam with the patch pre-installed.

Quake III (And Derivatives)

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Quake 3 is a decent shooter, and now you can play it for free through your browser at quakelive.com. But there's more to the story, as its efficient engine is used to drive so many old shooters: the original Call of Duty, Dark Forces 2: Jedi Knight, Return to Castle Wolfenstein, American McGee’s Alice, and Star Trek Voyager: Elite Force are only a few of the games built on the id Tech 3 engine.

The hitch is that, even though your netbook is fast enough to handle these games, you may have some trouble getting them to run in a widescreen format (assuming you can get them to run under Windows 7 at all). For instance, we got Star trek Voyager: Elite Force to work, but only after editing the right config files to add 1280x720 support and turning off some audio hardware acceleration options to prevent sound glitches (the widescreen gaming forum is a great resource with information to help get 720p working in games that don’t natively support the resolution). As a result, Elite Force looks great and usually runs at 30+ FPS, though it does suffer from occasional dips to 20 FPS.

Star Wars: Battlefront II

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At low graphics settings, Star Wars: Battlefront II looks sweet on a netbook at 1280x720. Moreover, it’s a great objective-based shooter with both space and ground components. If your team achieves certain goals, you can even play as an overpowered Jedi for a short time, and the game is wrapped with a cool meta-game to tie it all together. This is our favorite shooter for the netbook.

Roller Coaster Tycoon 3

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Let’s move on to the sandbox games. Roller Coaster Tycoon 3 is a fun theme park management simulator with 3D graphics and the ability to see your attractions from the viewpoint of the patrons riding them. Widescreen support isn’t native to the game, but 1280x720 can be added by editing the "games options.txt" file (once again, see the widescreen gaming forum for help setting it up). With 32-bit color, shadows enabled, and detail levels set to 50%, the game usually runs in excess of 20 FPS. Although it sometimes drops when the camera zooms out, it doesn't dip below 15. Considering the kind of game play this title employs, with no enemies to react to, that's plenty smooth for an enjoyable experience.

Spore

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At low settings and 1280x720, Spore usually runs at a fairly steady 30 FPS. The game is very playable on our netbook, and it's a great sandbox diversion for folks who like to be creative. If you enjoy designing things, from creatures to spaceships, and the idea of watching them come to life appeals to you, you’ll probably enjoy Spore.

Grand Theft Auto III

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A sandbox title with equal doses of driving and criminal behavior, this is the game that really set the stage for Rockstar’s success. Despite being more than 10 years old, it still looks pretty good and is packed with fun content. Our netbook runs at around 30 frames per second at 720p. And while it occasionally dips, performance never falls below 20 FPS. Grand Theft Auto III is consistently playable on this entry-level platform.

Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit 2

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Whereas Grand Theft Auto is a sandbox game that includes a driving element, Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit 2 is a pure driving game. It's not a follow-up to the recently-released Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit, but rather a 2003 release that followed 1998’s Need For Speed III: Hot Pursuit. This game set the stage for the franchise over the decade that followed it, and we still think the title looks good today. We had to run the game in Windows Vista compatibility mode using Administrator access. But that's all you'll need to do to get this one running at 40+ frames per second in Windows 7.

…And The Games That Don't Run Well

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For as many games that we found run well on a netbook, several others simply wouldn't, despite our best efforts.

Lord Of the Rings: Battle For Middle EarthWe were able to get this game running in widescreen mode with some tweaks, but performance barely hit 20 frames per second. It simply runs too slow to really enjoy. We're bummed because we really enjoyed this RTS back in the day.

StarCraftThis is another game that runs well on a netbook, but doesn't support 720p. Regardless, it's certainly worth playing despite the stretched 640x480 resolution.

Star Wars: Knights Of The Old RepublicThis is one of our favorite RPGs (and the grandaddy of Bioware's new MMO). But we couldn’t get it to run on Windows 7, despite the helpful tutorials we found on the Web. Even if we could, it appears that there's no way to force 1280x720 satisfactorily without losing elements of the interface. So, it wouldn't have qualified for our list anyway.

Games powered by Valve’s Source Engine (Half Life 2, Counter Strike: Source, Left 4 Dead)These games enjoy relatively low system requirements. However, our netbook couldn't quite muster satisfactory performance. It was rare to see more than 20 FPS in Counter Strike: Source, the easiest one of these titles to run. First-person shooters demand fast reaction times, and our modest platform just can't facilitate an enjoyable experience.

Civilization VThis game has problems running at 1280x720, and we simply couldn’t get it working at that resolution in full-screen mode.

Star Trek OnlineThis is one of the best-looking MMOs out there, and has really evolved nicely since its purchase by Perfect World and the subsequent free-to-play launch. Unfortunately, it needs a little more power than our netbook has in reserve.